Chick lit is mostly contemporary portrayals of single women in cities. The Swedish author Frida Skybäck writes “chick lit in corsets”, that is, chick lit in a historical setting, and she writes primarily for teenage girls. Her two novels Charlotte Hassel (2011) and Den vita frun (2012) balance between chick lit jr. and romance. They can also be read as historical novels, and in my article I highlight how Skybäck has consciously played with the different genres to convey a feminist message and to strengthen young readers.
This article describes and discusses experiences of teaching popular romance in Sweden, a country where the genre has been more or less invisible until recent years. Starting with an overview of the status and visibility of popular romance in Sweden, our experiences of designing and revising a course on romance is presented. Our projects providing textbooks for students are presented and we share both pitfalls and rewards we have experienced giving this course.